I’m not going to let my insecurities keep me from having a good time. I think that if you don’t loose your self-consciousness, you can’t really be present in a situation. For example, if you’re at The Louvre, but you’re thinking about how much you hate your jeans, you’re not really at The Louvre. So in your memory, when you look back, you’re always going to be like, “I was wearing those jeans I hated”. And you’re not going to remember anything else.

The movies I made early on may not have been great, but they were all commercially successful.

I think we need great artists making great work - women, men, whoever. I think what's great about TV now is there are so many different platforms that you can make really specific, specialized content. I wouldn't have gotten this part because I'm not really considered a "traditional romantic lead," so I created it for myself.

If an audience doesn't get that [Black Snake Moan] is a movie about overcoming exploitation, it could come across as incredibly misogynistic. That would be the worst thing in the world for me.

To be honest, I don't usually do very much research, especially if I'm working with a director who also wrote the screenplay. They've usually done a tonne of research. And they'll tell you about it from their perspective which is better than doing your own research.

I think I've always been interested in playing people who are judged very harshly.

I went through an awkward adolescence and had braces.